Only Exception
by VerelLupin
Summary: Everybody loved Ariadne but there is an exception to everything. Philippa Cobb is not sure of this woman who holds her father's heart. Letting go of the past is hard for all the Cobbs but especially for Philippa. Dom/Ari and some mention of A/A.


**I know that I have no business uploading another story especially given the amount of stories I have not updated (coughterminatorcough) but I was fixing chap. 8 when I heard this song.**

**Now I normally detest song fics but I feel this one is not as annoying as others. (I guess cause its mine, haha)**

**Anyway just something that popped into my mind. Sadly there's another one I'm working on and I will foist it onto you poor people.**

**I haven't heard the original, this is based off the Glee version of this song.**

**Enjoy...**

* * *

**When I was younger, I saw my daddy cry**

"Mommy is mad at us." James said quietly.

"No, she's mad at Daddy."

"Why? What did he do?" James asked.

"I don't know."

Philippa approached her father, "daddy we love you."

He wiped his eyes and hugged her. "I know."

**And curse at the wind**

"What are you doing?" he asked mommy

"Are you sure we're home?" she asked again.

"Yes, we're home." Daddy took something from her hand and mommy left the table. He sat down and bowed his head.

**He broke his own heart and I watched**

"Those are not my children. Wake up Dom."

They were shouting again.

"Lower your voice. What if they hear you?"

"I don't care, they are just projections."

That night his little girl asked him why Mommy didn't like them anymore.

**As he tried to reassemble it**

"Daddy, what are projec…those things."

"They're nothing for you to worry about. Just part of a story I told your mommy."

"Is she sad its over?" James asked.

"Yes, she is."

**And my momma swore that**

"Philippa, come here."

"Yes, mommy."

"You look remarkably like her. But you're not my little girl."

**She would never let herself forget**

That was the last time she hugged her children.

It was the last time they would see her.

**And that was the day that I promised**

"Your mother is…gone," he swallowed heavily and hugged them tighter.

Dominic Cobb bade his kids goodnight; it would be two years before he would be able to do it again.

**I'd never sing of love if it does not exist**

"Hi, daddy." Philippa answered.

"Hi sweetie, how are you and James? Did you get the presents I sent you with Grandpa?"

She nodded and clung to the phone. "Grandma says you're never coming back."

"That's not true. Can I speak to your grandma?" he asked.

Grandma shook her head and Philippa told her father that she didn't want to talk to him.

**But darling, you are the only exception**

She was six years old when Daddy returned.

**You are the only exception**

He introduced a pretty girl named Ariadne.**  
**

**You are the only exception**

He said she helped him.

**You are the only exception**

She made him smile.

**Maybe I know, somewhere deep in my soul  
**

She came over a lot.

First she came with Uncle Arthur then with Grandpa Miles and then alone.

Her dad spent a lot of time with her. He stopped talking about her mother.

Ariadne wasn't so pretty anymore and her name was weird.

**That love never lasts**

Ariadne was gone for a few years finishing her studies in Paris but she promised Philippa and James she would be back because she was their friend.

Philippa didn't want her kind of friendship near her family. She was eight at the time.

**And we've got to find other ways to make it alone**

She was thirteen when Ariadne came back and she turned sixteen when she really started noticing that her father treated her as something more than a friend.

She was seventeen when she saw them kiss for the first time. She asked him if Ariadne was his girlfriend. He told her that she was his friend.

A few days later she saw Ariadne sitting atop her father on the couch. She left when her dad took his _'friend's'_ shirt off.

**Or keep a straight face  
**

"Wow, I'm so proud of you, James. First price in the science fair."

"Thanks, mom." It was a slip of the tongue for James. He didn't remember their mother but she did.

"She's not our mother." Philippa yelled and yanked James out of her embrace.

"Philippa!" Her father yelled.

"Well, she isn't. Our mother is dead. She's not even our stepmother."

"Philippa, apologize to Ariadne right now!"

"It's ok, Dom." She said and began gathering their dinner things but Dominic didn't let her finish.

"Philippa so help me, you will apologize."

"Or what? You'll send me to my room. You can't make me. I'm not a child anymore."

"All the more reason you should know better than to say such things and why you should say you're sorry. After all she has done-"**  
**

**And I've always lived like this**

"I know. She saved you from limbo. She is the reason you came back to us."

She slammed her hands hard on the table rattling the dishes. "If she is so fucking perfect why don't you marry her instead of just screwing her when you think we're not here," she shouted.

"Where would you-"

"I saw you, so don't bother denying it. Are you so much of coward that you can't admit that you've forgotten about mom or are you too worried about what your little slut will say if you tell us the truth."

Dom rose from the table and slapped his daughter. "You're grounded and you will go to your room and you will not come out until you're ready apologize to Ariadne and myself. Is that understood?"

Philippa held in the tears but not her anger. "You'll never be our mother. He'll get tired of you eventually. You aren't the first."

Dom moved to drag her out of the room but Ariadne held him back.

Holding her stinging cheek she snarled at the stunned Ariadne, "I hate you. I wish you had died instead of mom."**  
**

**Keeping a comfortable distance  
**

Later that night she tiptoed to the guest room where no doubt her father would be.

Ariadne was trying to pack her things but Dominic kept unpacking them. "You don't have to leave, I'll talk to her first thing tomorrow."

Philippa pressed her ear to Ariadne's door, they were arguing again.

She had caused this but she didn't care. She wasn't going to let Ariadne take her father from her. They had already lost their mother. He was all they had left.

"You know she's right, Dom."

"Ari," he pleaded.

"I'm not your wife and we've been together for five years. Its time we both move on."

"We can get married right now if-"

"Its not just that. The job keeps us together but that's not enough for me anymore and if you're honest with yourself, it isn't for you either."

"You don't believe that." He said.

"Philippa will never accept me, Dom. I can't keep up this sneaking around. She already knows about us and look how she reacted. I'm coming between you and your daughter. This has to stop, I love you too much to ruin your family."

"Ari, you are a part of my family. Give me a few days before you decide to do anything."

"A few days?"

"Yes, I'll take care of it. I promise."

"Ok."

She heard them kiss but knew that this argument would happen again in the coming days. She would make sure of it.

**And up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness  
**

Four days later she was at the front door making sure that Ariadne really did leave and that her father didn't come after her.

So far she was just standing uncertainly on the porch waiting for her cab.

Philippa hid beneath the stairs when her father approached. She watched as her father begged the woman one last time to stay and felt a tinge of remorse at the raw emotion on his face but she shoved it deep down.

The woman didn't belong in their family.

"She'll come around, she will," he was saying.

Ariadne wrapped her arms around him and kissed him goodbye. She apparently didn't tell him that Philippa was smirking at her from behind him.

James didn't talk to her for months and her dad withdrew further into himself.

**Because none of it was ever worth the risk  
**

Dad went to work with Uncle Arthur and he began to regain some of old self. He still didn't really smile. She had to admit it was like their mother's loss all over again.

Nobody in their circle mentioned Ariadne. Dad worked long hours and stayed up all night.

Sometimes she would get up and drape a blanket over him as he slept on the couch. Those were the only times, she heard him mention the brown haired woman.

**But you are the only exception  
**

She never told him that he talked in his sleep.

**You are the only exception**

She never let him or James know how much she missed Ariadne.

**You are the only exception  
**

She never told him that she went looking for her.

**You are the only exception**

She didn't tell him that she found her.

**I've got a tight grip on reality  
**

"Why are you here?" the architect asked the promising point woman.

"He needs you."

The older woman shook her head sadly. "That's not enough."

**But I can't let go of what's in front of me here  
**

"Why not?" she asked still displaying the thoughts of a teenager. She'd be nineteen in two days but she already felt like she was older than her years.

"Because, it not just him. It involves you guys too."

"What if I told you that James needs you?"

"You're a good kid Philippa but your father and I aren't meant to be."

"What if I told you that I need you?"

"I wish that were true."

**I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up  
**

She let Philippa convince her and agreed to see him one last time.

They went out to dinner and stayed out all night. It was the happiest her dad had been in years but it didn't matter.

She still boarded the next flight to Paris in the morning and disappeared from their lives.

It took several more months to find her and she wasn't alone.

**Leave me with some kind of proof, it's not a dream, oh  
**

Uncle Arthur sent her a postcard. They were in front of the Louvre.

**You are the only exception**

He was hugging her.

**You are the only exception  
**

She was pregnant and was hugging him back.

**You are the only exception  
**

Dad found the picture but he just said that she looked happy.

**You are the only exception  
**

She never told him that he cried in his sleep either.**  
**

**You are the only exception**

She apologized for hurting him and he told her that she had nothing to apologize for.

Philippa cried for the first time in her father's arms since she was eight.

**You are the only exception  
**

She called Ariadne long distance that day but no one answered.

**You are the only exception  
**

She told James where she was going.

He told her it was about time she got her head out of her ass and gave her a kiss for good luck.

With the help of Uncle Eames, she flew to Paris.

**You are the only exception  
**

She arrived at Uncle Arthur's apartment at midnight.

Uncle Arthur let her in and he left them to get croissants. None of them mentioned the basket that sat in the middle of the table, overflowing with the flaky treats.

She told her that her father missed and needed her.

Ariadne told her that she was with Arthur now and that she no longer loved Dominic Cobb.

Philippa let her temper get the better of her and called the petite woman a liar and left.

Philippa cooled down then called on her trusted uncles for help. They came and helped her change her ticket with Uncle Saito's airline and get a second one.

**And I'm on my way to believing**

In the early morning hours she went to see her again.

Ariadne told her she had not changed her mind.

Philippa told her that she missed her mother and wanted her parents back. Ariadne cried and Philippa hugged her for the first time in twelve years.

Thirteen hours later, she delivered the very pregnant Ariadne to her father.

Dominic Cobb grabbed and held his little girl, who was not so little and yelled and kissed her at the same time. He then saw the woman behind her.

He stared at her for a full minute until his daughter pushed out of his arms and put Ariadne where she belonged.

Ariadne was kissed long and hard and she confessed that he was going to be a father again.

**Oh, and I'm on my way to believing**

They got married after the baby was born.

Philippa was maid of honor and Uncle Arthur was best man. Uncle Eames was the second best man and Uncle Saito tried to give enough money to fund the entire wedding but Grandma Madelyn shot him down and retained just enough for a fabulous honeymoon.

Grandpa held her little brother's pudgy arm aloft. Matthew Andrew Cobb, Philippa named him, waved his little hand at them from the pews.

Grandpa and Grandma tried not to cry when her parents said, _"I do."_

Philippa did and she didn't care who saw her.

She took many pictures next to her new mother and Uncle Arthur insisted on a picture of the whole family.

Philippa held Matthew and stood with James beside her.

They stood behind the happy couple because Uncle Arthur said her mother was too short and they would block her. Her father laughed along and her mother mentioned that she almost let Matthew's big sister name him Arthur but that her father had hated the idea.

Uncle Eames took the opportunity to ask Philippa and James if their father had ever shown signs that he was jealous of Uncle Arthur.

Uncle Saito coughed discreetly and told Uncle Arthur to take the picture before her father stopped smiling all together.

"Did James ever tell you that Mommy saved Daddy," she cooed at the little boy while her various family members argued amongst each other. "That's actually not true, she saved all of us."

In the end the argument was ended when her mother kissed her father so soundly that the rest of the group was stunned into silence.

Her mother was still the only who could quiet that group. She was also the only one who had ever made her father grin so stupidly.

Watching her parents cut the cake, Philippa no longer saw her as an exception.

Mom was the one that held their unconventional family together and Philippa couldn't be happier that she'd been wrong about Ariadne Cobb.


End file.
